Video Transcript
What is the probability of a student riding a bike to school? A) Zero. B) One. Or C) Between zero and one.
To solve this question, we need to think about what probability is. Probability is the chance that something will occur. A probability of zero would suggest that something is impossible, that it will never happen. A probability of one suggests that it is certain something will happen. If you look outside and it’s raining and someone asks the probability that it’s raining today, well, that would be one, because it is certain to occur. It has occurred.
In a range between zero and one, the closer a number is to one, the more certain and the closer the number is to zero, the less certain you are that something will happen. We are given no information about the circumstances of this student riding their bike. And so we can’t claim that it is impossible that there is zero probability that it will happen. Nor can we claim that we’re certain it will happen, that there is a probability of one. So we have to say that the probability is between zero and one, somewhere between impossible and certain.
